Taiwan - home

Mom spent 2 weeks in Taiwan. I thought she'll like it here since people here are genuinely nice. And especially respectful of older people.

Plus mom as a shopper is a really difficult one - I believe we got yelled some choice Cantonese words in Hong Kong some years ago - just from her style of shopping. Frankly, I think she sometimes deserves it.

But in Taipei, you can stand in line to buy a latte in the mornings and then change your mind a couple of times and still be served with a smile and an easy 沒關係 (it's ok).

To my chargrin, it didn't quite work out so rosy. She explored as far as my neighbourhood and refused to venture beyond. No taxis, no MRT, no buses. Anywhere on foot she was ok with, but having to take some form of transportation scared her. And this is the same mom who quite happily rode the London double-decker buses to downtown High street during my MBA days not too long ago - alone. She asked around to find out what buses takes her whereever she wanted to go to in London.

Yes, she was scared in a city (Taipei) that is possibly the friendliest in Asia - my sincere opinion.

Despite Taiwan's warmth and genuineness, it could not compensate for the low levels of spoken English on the streets of Taipei.

Mom was afraid of getting lost and then not being able to communicate with anyone. And that fear alone stopped her from venturing beyond the small radius of home.

It is a pity.

It's getting cool here

Today it's 22 degrees. Funnily it got cooler right after mom left. She kept whinging about how hot it gets - it was probably 25 degrees while she was here *roll eyeballs*

I really don't get it when Singaporeans bitch about the warm weather. Comeon already, we're south-east Asians, we live practically on the equator, don't tell me you hide out in an AC room all day. It's such pretentious, phoney behaviour that makes me sick.

Ok, I'm grumpy... I'm coordinating the next Marketing Summit and it has been eventful. Originally planned in San Francisco and then last minute big boss man says move to Houston. And we scramble to change. I hate the mothercity of cowboy state. Hate is a little strong yes, perhaps I strongly dislike. True to form, the cowboys start to whinge almost immediately. Oh, the venue we're considering is too far, the 1 hour commute is too long, oh the place is too dangerous, too expensive... Hello? There's people flying in from France, Singapore, Taiwan, California and Florida - and the Houston people are complaining a 1 hour drive is too far?

I've been sucking it all in and patient. But I lost it on Friday late night, pushed over the brink by this 1 rude cowboy who ironically worked out of the Taiwan office for almost 2 years.

What was Sunday's sermon about? Love. No. 1 love the Lord Your God with all your might and all your soul. No. 2 love your neighbour.

Think happy thoughts... going back to my Alishan weekend. And if you think these photos are gorgeous, well, I shot them. Yeah, me and my lousy skills achieved this - you can imagine how much more majestic in real life the sunrise or the 2000year old cypress trees look (and smell). Oommms!

Of mothers and Alishan

Having my mom visit for 14 days in a tiny apartment in Taipei was perhaps too ambitious. Despite me dragging my colleagues out to eat with me and then even dragging a few of them along with us to Alishan for the weekend, still, it really highlighted the difficulties we've had in our relationship.

I discovered I actually disliked being around her to listen to her whinge, complain, blame... I naturally walk away from her whenever I can. So much so that my colleagues would walk with her and then yell me... a common refrain was, 你又忘了你妈！You forgot your mom again!... Actually I didn't forget, I'm just plain avoiding.

Despite my best efforts at love - the Bible says so, when I see/hear her, I just want to flee.

I would imagine when couples divorce after many years of marriage, citing irreconciliable differences, it's because the hurt's so deep, that you're really beyond caring. Just a simple sentence brings with it a huge wave of anger/hurt that's accumulated over many years.

Don't get me wrong, I do all I ought to. I take her to dinner every night, we visit night markets, I took her to all the places a tourist should go in Taipei. I give her all she needs. When she nags, complains, I remain silent. But I just don't want to be close to her!

At times like these, it would do one well to count our God given blessings :
- mom is healthy
- she lives in Singapore
- I live in Taipei
- my 2 brothers take care of her (thank you 2!)
- my colleagues are really sweet people - thank you Rae especially! You'll make a great daughter-in-law one day
- weekend in Alishan was fantastic. The cypress woods with trees up to 2000 years old.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157608210290955/

- and most of all, Jesus loves us all.

“All Prayers Answered”

From Fr Philip Heng's daily reading commentary -

In today’s Gospel, Jesus assures us that all our prayers are answered because God loves us. If we are not convinced of this Truth, then either Jesus is lying or we are “blind” to this Truth. Love and Trust God more and we will experience the Truth of what Jesus has promised.

Thu 10/9, Gospel - Lk 11:5-13
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,’
and he says in reply from within,
‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.’
I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him?”

Diving can be pretty therapeutic...

Went diving over the weekend in Kenting. I had heard the water visbility wasn't as good, plus our original plans was Orchid Island which is the best diving Taiwan has to offer... but typhoons kept wrecking our plans.

Kenting was a last minute decision as well - after the typhoon veered into Hainan narrowly avoiding hitting Taiwan for yet another weekend. Pictures parked here!
http://picasaweb.google.com/kci9kimo/20081003#

I had a great weekend! And I have a happy song stuck in my head...

More bad weather forecasted...

By Shelley Shan STAFF REPORTER TAIPEI TIMES Wednesday, Oct 01, 2008, Page 2

Those who have outdoor or travel plans this weekend may want to reconsider. The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday that a low-pressure system near Guam has been upgraded to a tropical storm and may approach Taiwan this weekend.

The newly formed tropical storm is named Higos, which means “fig” in Spanish.

At press time yesterday, the bureau said the center of Higos was located 610km southeast of Manila, which is about 1,600km from Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻). The storm was moving northwesterly at a speed of 20kph. The radius of the storm was 200km. CWB forecast center director Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said the tropical storm is near the Philippines, and its structure may be damaged by land there.

It was unlikely that the storm’s intensity will gradually increase at this stage, Wu said. Nonetheless, Wu said sea temperatures from the east of the Philippines over to the South China Sea are still quite warm at this time of year. Even after the storm sweeps across the Philippines, it is in an ideal environment for developing into a typhoon, he said. Wu said the bureau would be better able to determine the situation tomorrow.

If Higos does approach Taiwan, it would be the fourth weekend in a row that a storm will have threatened the nation. Typhoon Sinlaku hit Taiwan on Sept. 14, Hagupit loomed off Taiwan’s coast on Sept. 21, and Jangmi just left on Monday after battering the nation with strong winds and rain.

The bureau yesterday added that a dry seasonal northeast wind is expected to arrive today and may lower temperatures in the north to 22°C or 23°C.

In related news, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday that Jangmi caused the nation some NT$1.37 billion (US$42.5 million) in agricultural damage. Broken down by sector, NT$1.22 billion in crops were lost, translating into 15,491 hectares of land, with rice paddies being the hardest hit, and grapes, bananas and other fruits also being affected. Nearly NT$5.61 million was lost in livestock and the COA said that almost 110,000 chickens died because of the typhoon.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education yesterday said it would allocate NT$15 million in emergency assistance for schools damaged by Jangmi to help them re-open.Around the country, 56 schools remained closed yesterday because of typhoon damage, the ministry said, adding that it was the worst typhoon damage in recent years.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MEGGIE LU AND CNA

Typhoon Day Holiday Today

Ah the feeling of waking up at 11am on a Monday morning... ZZZ...

Stuck indoors again - typhoon no. 4

Typhoon Jangmi approaches -4th typhoon to hit us this year and also the strongest storm. It made landfall in Yilan, where the Central Mountain Range buffet the biggest impact.

We've had typhoons hit us every weekend in succession. The land's still pretty waterlogged in the mountainous areas and low lying areas. Lots of landslides plus shaky bridges are still unfixed - a bridge in Taichung collapsed during last week's typhoon, rescue workers are still trawling for the bodies of the 4 missing people. May God have mercy on their souls and their bodies be recovered quickly so that loved ones have closure. This time around, the authorities are more conservative and took better preparations. Thus far, things are better.

Jangmi typhoon kicked up winds up to 250km hit northern Taiwan, Hurricane Ike which caused so much devastation in Texas was only up to 233km/h. In Hualien, a tour bus flipped over on its side - just shows how bad the wind was - fortunately no deaths.

Before the typhoon hit, yesterday, I was in Fulong 福隆 yesterday (Sat) with Rae, Alex and Pingfan for some cycling off the North-East coast of Taiwan. A newly restored old train tunnel - the Caoling Tunnel is also the basis of an old Taiwanese folk song. In fact Rae sang almost the entire song as we cycled through it. It's about 4.6km and then we went back to Fulong for the famed Fulong biantang 便當.

Then we cycled in the opposite direction intending to cross a nice drawbridge. But we missed a turn and gave up after the scenary turned industrial. Plus it got dangerous when the traffic around us were mostly semi-trailers.

I was a little wobbly initially - having not cycled in a while. Rae cycled behind me, yelling warnings at me every so often - 小心！Disclaimer - I was preoccupied with the scenary and wasn't watching the front too often. In fact at 1 stage, I got too close to Pingfan and our tires met briefly. All she yelled was, 请不要碰我！The Taiwanese sense of humour is really subtle. Kills me everytime.

Emotions, feelings... groan!

All this Aunt Agony moments I keep having is starting to grate on me. It's either that the girls in the office are younger with an active social life or that I'm just in the office a lot/online so much that I get dumped with these moments.

Looking back, I realise that I've endured that a lot - my whole life in fact, I've spent many hours sitting around and being that listening ear.

The thing is, it doesn't make me feel good - if anything, it reminds me how much I lack in terms of BGR (boy-girl relationships). I only had 1 serious relationship with Hon - and he left me in the end. And late at nights, alone, all these come back to me in the form of inadequacy - how lonely I am and how much I want to have my own family - husband and kids.

Maybe this is mid-life crisis and singlehood for too long - all rolled up into 1 messy me.

Gah! Does the good Lord hear prayers anymore?!

Oh and I finally got around to parking the Snow Mountain trip pictures. Due to typhoon, we weren't granted a permit to climb the Eastern Peak which was the plan. But since we were already there, it became a camping trip. The views of the Snow Mountain area are really spectacular, a pity we didn't make the summit.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157607431238395/

Divorce and reality

Recently 2 friends got divorced. Both of whom are great, really nice people married to seemingly nice decent men. What's happening today?

While the Church's stand is pretty clear, the rising number of annulment it grants is also a telling story. http://www.catholicinsight.com/online/church/divorce/c_annul.shtml

To those going through/midst of divorce, may the good Lord stand by you, strengthen and be with you.

My Assimilation is Complete

Found myself downloading Jay Chou music on a Sat morning... I hereby pronounce myself truly assimilated to life in Taiwan.

Ignore the fact that just 2 days ago in China, the factory guys thought I was some ABC (American born Chinese).. Boo! They all came up to me speaking really stilted English cos someone told them that I don't speak Chinese. I'll kill whoever that's spreading such vicious rumours...

It was supposed to be a fun island weekend on Orchid Island. But as it turns out, Typhoon Sinlaku has other ideas.

Let's just say, there were some pretty long faces in the office yesterday. Those of us "supposed" to be lying on the beaches of Orchid Island.

And I have no clue what to do this really wet and windy weekend... lie in bed somemore or hit the gym..

PS I bought a bag for mom in Shanghai - and thanks Steph, but I made it safely out without any dramatics.

Citibank - my credit card of choice (again)

Thank you Mr Pradeep Pant - VP of Credit Cards Taiwan and his assistant Sophia.

My faith in Citibank Taiwan is reinstated.

Pick me up Tuesday

It's a Tuesday night and Emily wanted to order pizza and work late today again - I refused! Managed to convince her to go out eat, then return to work. We went to eat 小籠包 near Guting MRT station. And feeling poor after buying some hiking gear (we're going to Jade Mountain in Oct! I bought a new Lafuma jacket and she hiking boots), we walked to take the MRT instead of our usual taxi after dinner. Plus we overate - ok ok, that's the real reason. We were too stuffed and needed to walk off our bloated bellies.

She pointed down 1 dark dank lane and said, hey massage place. Now those 2 words are magic to me, so I walked down with her. She is right, the lane was pretty interesting. It has an antique shop, very traditional provisions shop (with all the 7-11s and 24hr convenience stores in Taiwan, it survived!), some quaint old buildings. While walking back out to the main street, we saw this interesting shop. I thought it was Japanese curios, Emily though jewellery, it was a very high class Japanese styled desserts. All hand sculptured. You have to see to believe how pretty they are. Fillings range from redbean to green bean to some jelly. We ate 1, the yellow bird. It tasted really good! The owner came out to chat, she spent 2 years in Japan learning the craft. And it takes up to 15mins to make a single complicated one. Makes for good gifts. Might buy some for Michelle when I next go home. The store is called Tang Ho 唐和.

Sunday - Fitness 0, Culture 2

The excesses of the week caught up with me. Basketball with Paula (from the office) til late on Friday and some really hard routes at the Wanhua rock gym Sat morning plus the preparation run sessions I had all week over lunch -> it all took it's toil on me. I forget sometimes that my body is aging faster than my mind. Or is it the other way around... hmm...

In any case, I overslept my Nike Run on Sunday morning. I was all prepared! I was eager, I was excited, I was tired. I woke up with a start and it was 6.14am. Grr! And the weather was beautiful! And it was a new route - a 10km run! And the president of Taiwan ran too!

So when I met Ghee Hwee for church and lunch at 10-ish, I was super grumpy. Pissed at myself. Dumped on her and felt much better by end of Sunday. Poor Ghee Hwee...

Complained to her thru lunch and by the time the ballet started, I felt much better. :)

Oh yeah, we caught a ballet. The Russian Ballet was in town, we caught the Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky. It was simply fantastic. I yelled bravo at the end of the performance, much to Ghee Hwee's consternation - she hissed 'this is a classy place!' at me.

We walked around the area afterwards and realised the Woolly Mammoth exhibits were on display at the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall (just behind the National Theatre where the ballet performance was). It was ok, just a bunch of tasks and fur and lots of teeth. I guess a lot's lost in translation - it was almost 100% in Chinese.

Fitness 0 (for missing the 10k run)
Culture 2

Not a bad weekend.

Window Cleaners

I was in the pantry with Emily this afternoon. She was whinging about how difficult the HP digital camera was to use while as usual I ignored her and made tea.

Then these 2 guys popped up and she snapped this shot - they actually posed for us.

Ain't it cool?

Wild Wet Weekend

As you can see, I spent my weekend, skipping rocks, platform diving, sliding/floating/bumping my butts in a stream. Well actually 2 streams...

I went with Rae, Alex and Emily to Miaoli, 2 hours drive south-west of Taipei. It's called 溯溪 or River tracing, popular in Taiwan.

We were deep in Ayatal aboriginal lands, nestled amongst the beautiful mountains, where the air is pure, the stream waters icy cold and crystal clear, with birds & insects chirping and the sounds of water gushing down waterfalls... Being one with nature, and I loved it!

Altogether we walked in 2 streams. A baby one on Saturday and a much harder one with bigger rapids on Sunday. Thankfully I bought new booties just before the trip that comes with green-wool sponge attached. It's uniquely Taiwanese and creates very good grip on slippery rocks.

My camera isn't waterproof - but the others in the group had great pictures -http://photo.pchome.com.tw/spark00/082/

My pix - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157606943035548/

I really enjoyed the weekend, the only thing that got me was the icy water temperature 22degrees.. brr!

After all that activity, I managed a nap, ahhh...

A Season for Everything

Ecclesiastes - Chapter 3:1 to 8

There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.
A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.

I went back last week to attend the funeral of my beh-day (or Eldest uncle in Hainanese) - Cheng Sim Kin.

After my paternal grandparents passed away, he has assumed the role of patriach the last 3 decades, and he did so dutifully, responsibly, cheerfully, quietly.

So he returns to Jesus and we're left behind to pick up the pieces. Pls keep the Chengs in prayer. It was especially hard on the immediate family - my aunty and cousins.

Happy Birthday Singapore!

To 43 years of nation building - Majulah Singapura!

Funnily enough, it took me being out of my homeland to discover how much I love my country.

I had the national flag as my MSN picture since yesterday and was feeling all patriotic and all.

Over my boring lunch hour (I should be in the gym, I know, I know) I browsed Mr Brown and it killed me - I had to seriously stifle my giggles. http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2008/08/singaporeans-in.html

To all your Singaporeans overseas - stand up and sing in 1 voice "count on me singapore!" cos the cold & paternalistic government of ours certainly couldn't care less.

Climbing 七星山 - tallest mountain in Taipei City

Finally I made it up 七星山 or 7Stars Mountain - which at 1120m is the tallest mountain in the district of Taipei City. We took about 2 hrs to huff and puff up and slightly over an hour to walk down. It was a beautiful walk up. After the midway point, we were enveloped in the clouds - the pictures I took doesn't do the place justice. It was simply heaven on earth.

After the walk, Peter scootered over the other side to show me 擎天崗 or Jintiangang. That's our next planned walk ;)

Lazy week out of office

Out of office all week!

At Green Island decadently lazing/diving/eating/sleeping til Tue. Wed to Fri at a Marketing training + offsite.

Monday (today) is declared a holiday all Taiwan, we're cowering at home from Typhoon Fung-Wong. At this current moment, the eye of the storm is in Hualien - I suppose cows are flying about there...

I should take that bad. The farmers and people of Taichung/central Taiwan already suffered floodings from heavy rains brought by the last typhoon - Typhoon Kalmaegi which hit 18 Jul. I saw on TV these same people again evacuated last night for fear of landslides and floods. My heart/prayer goes out to them.

Green Island is being battered bad right now too - pictures on TV shows waves of up to 3 stories high...

I still have 2 calls today : system team meeting at 2.30pm and a regular conf call with Houston at 10pm.

First up, nap... zzz

Green Island - Part Deux

Right on the heels of Typhoon Kalmaegi, I went to Green Island for a bit of diving with Emily, Rae and Alex. Emily was going to take her open water diving certification while the others were in for a bit of a beach holiday.

I knew I was in for a good time when our main preoccupation rushing after work on Friday evening to the train station was whether we had enough time to buy biandangs. We did. It required a slow jog to the train platform though.. As we approached the platform, I looked up and saw we had 4 mins to make the train and Alex wasn't there yet. Rae started to call him and then Emily asked if I wanted a hotdog. Yeah, it was a weekend of eating, having fun and great diving.

I really needed a break after the last few difficult weeks... And these guys were really fun. Unlike my 1st trip to Green Island, this trip I got to see the rugged beauty of the island. The views were simply breath-taking, especially from Niutou Hill. I spent all Sat/Sun just exploring the island, soaking in the hotsprings, snorkeling, napping... It was really therapeutic. Rae and Alex left on Sun afternoon and I took my 1st dive then.

Sunday
1st dive - Loumen Rock. It was fantastic - I saw a sea snake, moray eels, lots of fish and corals...

Monday
3 dives in total. Best dive ever - Cathedral/Dabaisha. Simply awesome. I saw a turtle, moray eels, 2 lion fish, schools of fish, and dove thru tunnels and channels and into the Cathedral - a cave with just 1 ray of light shining from a opening in the ceiling.

Tuesday
2 more dives, with my newly certified dive buddy Emily. At 1 point, she sank like a rock to the sea bed and didn't move for a couple of minutes. Everyone froze - we thought she's dead. And then, tadah! She suddenly waved a bit of dead coral at us - she was trying to show us she too can pick up shells/corals :) We're still laughing about it.


Here's us - the happy divers. From L-R : Vero Chiang (dive master), me, Tobias (an application scientist from Germany), Emily (the rock), Vincent (dive instructor).

The folks at Blue Safari are a very professional outfit. I highly recommend them. Both Vero and Vincent speak English. The Blue Safari is the only dive center on Green Island that is PADI certified. They also have accomodations - just call Vero to arrange everything.

It was a such a blast going with my coworkers - they did everything! All the legwork, the bookings, arrangements... And all that easy bantering, it was a really good break. Thank you guys - you are wonderful!

More pix here -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157606332506151/

Pressure & blessings

During a meeting last Friday with my new boss - he was asking some really pointed questions regarding my platform and seriously, I didn't have an answer, started to sweat a little and feel really guilty. When my heart was pounding faster, it hit me that, hey I've not felt this way in a long time!

Work here is generally slower-paced and less pressurizing that what I've been used to. Inspite of my whining, I am blessed to be in this job.

The only down side is the people - but oh well, you can't have everything in life.

Karine - no regrets being here and thanks, still grateful to you for helping me get this job.

And one more icing on the cake - Star World made it's reappearance on my cable TV. It just suddenly appeared. No need to download Grey's Anatomy anymore! Yay!

Happy Belated Birthday Peter

Happy Birthday Peter! Here he is, wolfing down his birthday burger. Incidentally he washed it down with 5 glasses of Fanta Orange in a bid to beat my record* (* my coworkers and I eat at Chillis a lot over lunch and because drinks are free refills we always joke about drinking as much as we can - our record has been 4 glasses)

Seriously, I wouldn't drink that many Fanta Orange... Sprite perhaps *wink*

Peter and I arranged to go hike up 7Stars mountain at Yangminshan but it looked like rain, so we decided not to chance it.

Peter suggested visiting this place for views of the sun set - Dadaocheng 大稻埕 translated literally into "big rice-drying field". Off Wikipedia, this is an area of historial importance as an important trading port in the 19th century - particularly with tea exports. It's a nice trail alongside the Danshui River, people biking/walking/jogging along the banks. And when the sun started to set over the other bank beyond Shilin...

Simply gorgeous view of the sunset... More pix here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157606031769473/

Oh and I caught Sex and the City with Ghee Hwee and Amanda. It was funny, but also brought back memories of Hon. We used to watch with a bunch of friends in the early years over lots of booze... Those earlier truly fun filled hedonistic days of old.

An Ideal Husband

This was forwarded to me by Ms HardCore - ironically her dad forwarded it to her. This goes out in particular to my single girlfriends...

An Ideal Husband
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: July 6, 2008

This weekend, we celebrate our great American pastime: messy celebrity divorces.

There's the Christie Brinkley/Peter Cook fireworks on Long Island and the Madonna/Guy Ritchie/A-Rod Roman candle in New York.

So how do you avoid a relationship where you end up saying, "The man who I was living with, I just didn't know who he was" — as Brinkley did in court when talking about her husband's $3,000-a-month Internet porn and swinger site habit? (Not to mention the 18-year-old mistress/assistant.)

Father Pat Connor, a 79-year-old Catholic priest born in Australia and based in Bordentown, N.J., has spent his celibate life — including nine years as a missionary in India — mulling connubial bliss. His decades of marriage counseling led him to distill some "mostly common sense" advice about how to dodge mates who would maul your happiness.

"Hollywood says you can be deeply in love with someone and then your marriage will work," the twinkly eyed, white-haired priest says. "But you can be deeply in love with someone to whom you cannot be successfully married."

For 40 years, he has been giving a lecture — "Whom Not to Marry" — to high school seniors, mostly girls because they're more interested.

"It's important to do it before they fall seriously in love, because then it will be too late," he explains. "Infatuation trumps judgment."

I asked him to summarize his talk:
"Never marry a man who has no friends," he starts. "This usually means that he will be incapable of the intimacy that marriage demands. I am always amazed at the number of men I have counseled who have no friends. Since, as the Hebrew Scriptures say, 'Iron shapes iron and friend shapes friend,' what are his friends like? What do your friends and family members think of him? Sometimes, your friends can't render an impartial judgment because they are envious that you are beating them in the race to the altar. Envy beclouds judgment.

"Does he use money responsibly? Is he stingy? Most marriages that founder do so because of money — she's thrifty, he's on his 10th credit card.
"Steer clear of someone whose life you can run, who never makes demands counter to yours. It's good to have a doormat in the home, but not if it's your husband.

"Is he overly attached to his mother and her mythical apron strings? When he wants to make a decision, say, about where you should go on your honeymoon, he doesn't consult you, he consults his mother. (I've known cases where the mother accompanies the couple on their honeymoon!)

"Does he have a sense of humor? That covers a multitude of sins. My mother was once asked how she managed to live harmoniously with three men — my father, brother and me. Her answer, delivered with awesome arrogance, was: 'You simply operate on the assumption that no man matures after the age of 11.' My father fell about laughing.

"A therapist friend insists that 'more marriages are killed by silence than by violence.' The strong, silent type can be charming but ultimately destructive. That world-class misogynist, Paul of Tarsus, got it right when he said, 'In all your dealings with one another, speak the truth to one another in love that you may grow up.'

"Don't marry a problem character thinking you will change him. He's a heavy drinker, or some other kind of addict, but if he marries a good woman, he'll settle down. People are the same after marriage as before, only more so.

"Take a good, unsentimental look at his family — you'll learn a lot about him and his attitude towards women. Kay made a monstrous mistake marrying Michael Corleone! Is there a history of divorce in the family? An atmosphere of racism, sexism or prejudice in his home? Are his goals and deepest beliefs worthy and similar to yours? I remember counseling a pious Catholic woman that it might not be prudent to marry a pious Muslim, whose attitude about women was very different. Love trumped prudence; the annulment process was instigated by her six months later.

"Imagine a religious fundamentalist married to an agnostic. One would have to pray that the fundamentalist doesn't open the Bible and hit the page in which Abraham is willing to obey God and slit his son's throat.

"Finally: Does he possess those character traits that add up to a good human being — the willingness to forgive, praise, be courteous? Or is he inclined to be a fibber, to fits of rage, to be a control freak, to be envious of you, to be secretive?

"After I regale a group with this talk, the despairing cry goes up: 'But you've eliminated everyone!' Life is unfair."

Ice Skating

Peter took me ice skating last Saturday at Taipei Arena, 小巨蛋 as it's affectionately known here.

Considering my lack of affinity with sports involving skates/skis, it was an "interesting" experience. (read: yes I fell many times on my butt, get off my case already!)

Peter, on the other hand, can really skate.

Then we went to catch Gong Fu Panda the Movie. There was some event ongoing at the Mitsukoshi (新光三越) area and I got to hug Apo the Gong Fu Panda.

Feeling of fresh underwear...

You know how we take things for granted, like having fresh, clean underwear?

Well, I forgot to bring clean underwear (yes again) for the gym. And I hit the gym over lunch these days....

I comtemplated going without but didn't think my coworkers would take that too well.

Let's just say it was an icky afternoon and I left early.

More on Green Island

Here's my riding pillion with a view of Green Island.


The rest of my summer holiday videos : http://uk.youtube.com/user/fcheng07

The rest of my summer holiday pix : http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157605680372576/

Summer Holiday

My 1st visit down South Taiwan.

1s stop - Dive Green Island.
Went with Eddie from Green Island Adventures. He's a nice jolly guy, met me at Taichong's HSR station, jump into his van and he starts to drive for Taitung. Some 8 hours later, we jump onto a ferry and then we're on Green Island and the diving starts!

The dive gang consists of 1 dive instructor - Curtis from Canada. 2 women Canadians who were there to relax by the beach; Isau, a Japanese avid diver (who dives a lot with Eddie); Marko, an Estonian who's new to Taiwan (2 weeks old here!) and Nancy who's Taiwanese but grew up in California.

Highlights of the dive - banded coral snakes. I saw 3 over 5 dives in 2 days. Handfeeding a school of batfish, and in particular the different types of corals made the dives different. Water vis was really good and the blue skies and the lack of any other divers made it nice. I really liked our 2nd day local Dive Master,
Vero Chiang. If I go back, definitely dive with her.

2nd stop - chilling in Kenting
Eddie was nice enough to drop us off at Fangliao where we jumped onto a bus and headed straight into Kenting. We had chosen a local homestay which was pretty nice and reasonably priced. But they were grumpy and not very helpful. I would recommend staying at either the Howard Hotel or the Ok Hill Lodge rather - not very much pricier but more accessible to the main Kenting stretch so you can walk or scooter easily.

As it turns out, the weather was a blazing 35degrees C. And we'd already spent 2 days in the sun at Green Island. CY as it turns out, doesn't do very well in the heat - he's an AC guy. We scootered about for 1 day and the man wanted AC bad. So we headed for the city, Gaoshiong.

Walking down to the tip of Taiwan - Erluanbi in Kenting



Day 4 - GaoShiong City
We picked this out of the guidebook as we hadn't planned on Gaoshiong - Sanduo Hotel. Fortunately it was nice and clean and right in the heart of the city. Back to civilisation and taxis. We explored a little - the old British Consulate at Takao, on top of a hill. Front facing into the Taiwan straits and the back faces into the harbour - ah the Brits certainly knew to pick their locations. There's an old Northern gates still standing at the bottom of the Takao Hill. We visited the Love River area, viewed the tallest building 85 Sky Tower there, walked about. Very nice - very much more liveable than Taipei. Nicer, quieter, greener, breezier. Ate a very nice western meal. Checked out the nearby Holy Rosary Cathedral. Drank coffee at cafes... it was nice.

Back to Taipei
Back in Taipei, we drank coffee in cafes, visited the Grand Palace museum at leisure, ate more good food, had some excellent massages. Then CY returned home and I returned to some 300+ backlog emails.

aut Caesar aut nihil!

My attitude to life has always been aut Caesar aut nihil (latin for Caesar or nothing, ie all or nothing).

Of late, this has pissed some people off - hmmm...time to tone down.

Catholic Church Mass Times in Taipei - Sunday

Catholic Church in Taipei, Taiwan - English Masses and Mass Times

Da-An Area
Holy Family Church 新生南路二段50號 50 Hsingsheng S.Rd. Sec 2, Taipei
Tel 02-2321-2444
English Mass - 9.45am

Minsheng Area
St. John Bosco Parish 民生東路3段123號 123 Minsheng E. Rd. Sec3 Taipei
Tel 2719-6469
English Mass - 10.30am

Tienmu Area
St. Christopher's Church 中山北路三段51號51 Chungshan N. Rd ,Sec 3, Taipei
Tel 02-2594-7914
English Mass - Sat 6pm, Sun 10.30am, 12noon, 6pm

Tienmu Area
Mother of God Church 中山北路7段171號 171 Chungshan N.Rd Sec 7. Taipei
Tel 02-2871-5168
English Mass - Sat 7pm, Sun 12.15pm, 7pm

From my earlier notes when I first moved here to Taipei. For those of you searching for Catholic Churches English mass times in Taipei, I hope this helps.

I started out going to the Holy Family church - which has the largest English congregation church here in Taipei. But of late, I have found myself going to St John Bosco church instead - simple, mass is later, 10.30am :( still not a morning person.

Distance wise, it takes roughly the same cost via taxi (and hence distance) to get from where i live to either church.

Footnote - i measure all distance by taxi fare - my preferred mode of transport here in Taipei. Garin told me he travels by BMW these days - bus, mrt and walk. HA! The biggest consolation in having to give up driving is knowing crude is now $140 per barrel - ouch!

I am thinking of moving...

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 off Reuters

Astronomers find three 'super-Earths'

WASHINGTON -- European researchers said on Monday they discovered a batch of three "super-Earths" orbiting a nearby star, and two other solar systems with small planets as well.
They said their findings, presented at a conference in France, suggest that Earth-like planets may be very common.

"Does every single star harbor planets and, if yes, how many?" asked Michel Mayor of Switzerland's Geneva Observatory. "We may not yet know the answer but we are making huge progress towards it," Mayor said in a statement.

The trio of planets orbit a star slightly less massive than our Sun, 42 light-years away towards the southern Doradus and Pictor constellations. A light-year is the distance light can travel in one year at a speed of 186,000 miles (300,000 km) a second, or about 6 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).

The planets are bigger than Earth -- one is 4.2 times the mass, one is 6.7 times and the third is 9.4 times.

They orbit their star at extremely rapid speeds -- one whizzing around in just four days, compared with Earth's 365 days, one taking 10 days and the slowest taking 20 days.
Mayor and colleagues used the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher or HARPS, a telescope at La Silla observatory in Chile, to find the planets.

More than 270 so-called exo-planets have been found. Most are giants, resembling Jupiter or Saturn. Smaller planets closer to the size of Earth are far more difficult to spot.
None can be imaged directly at such distances but can be spotted indirectly using radio waves or, in the case of HARPS, spectrographic measurements. As a planet orbits, it makes the star wobble very slightly and this can be measured.

"With the advent of much more precise instruments such as the HARPS spectrograph ... we can now discover smaller planets, with masses between 2 and 10 times the Earth's mass," said Stephane Udry, who also worked on the study.

hmm.. more food?

Hmm.. what did I do this weekend? I set off with lofty goals, climb this mountain behind Shilin... but then, it rained so hard. Took Vinny to this 10ft gun range (air guns shooting pallets - yeah, the same one that Garin and I had so many laughs at). The difference with Vinny - he was intense, he was being Vinny the hitman. So serious, no talking, no laughing, no breaks, just shoot, reload, shoot, reload, shoot, reload...

And then... did we pig out. We topped ourselves. Our lunch/tea meal cost us 1400NT (about 70SGP) per person! Whew! But Bistro le Jadin - we picked it out of the Vogue magazine I was browsing

Address :
02) 2877-1178170, ZhongCheng Rd, Sec 2 (in Tien Mu next to the baseball stadium)
Hours: 7:30 am-10:30 pm

Our verdict? Very good food, dessert so-so, ambience good, pricey... And Vincent discovered the day AFTER we ate (when it was mostly digested) that showing them a weblink, we could've copped a few glass of wine each! Dang!

On Sunday we went out to ZhongLi to race go-karting. Garin was a speed demon, I don't know what happened to the conservative father, family man I thought he was. He came in 3rd and passed me on the circuit like 3 times. I hate him. Vinny the hitman clocked very decent times. I was slow but on my 2nd race, I caught up so much that I broke the car. Literally. Cool eh? (my Canadian accent showing?)

Weekend Binges

Guess what I did this weekend? Yeah right after that little walk up Elephant Mountain? What happens on weekends when you hang out with a big foodie - literally big as well ;)

VVG Bistro 好樣
Address: 20, Alley 40, Lane 181, Zhongxiao East Road Sec. 4, Taipei (台北市忠孝東路四段181巷40弄20號)
Telephone: 02.8773.3533

It's western meals cooked with spices and herbs. So more natural tasting. But what I really like about the place is their quaint style. From decor to their serving plates - Vincent's 5 grain rice was served in a miniature Tatung brand rice cooker (very Taiwanese). And his coffee came in a bowl with a spoon - yeah the man ladled down his cappucino.

Only thing bad about this place - it's hard to find thru the backlanes. Between Zhongxiao and Shimin, just 1 lane before Shimin.

And it's pricey too. I find western food restaurants in Taipei really pricey vs Chinese cuisine.

I climbed my 1st mountain in Taiwan!

Elephant Mountain

Part of the Song shan mountain range just beyond my house. I've been wanting to walk up this trail forever, well, ever since I moved to Taiwan.

I didn't realise how we're totally surrounded by mountains very close by until last week while at Computex's private meetings at the Hyatt Hotel, I saw up from the 14 storey a bird's eye view of the 101 and surrounding area.

Glad Vincent was game to try hiking this trail.

The views of the 101 presents itself almost immediately after you start the initial ascent - which is mostly steep steps. It levels off after a while and as you continue to walk up, the air turns cooler, it gets quieter as you leave the roar of traffic behind.. until you eventually don't hear anything but birds and insects chirping.

We saw a squirrel/chipmunk (how do you identify one from the other?), played with us for a bit before it jumped into the bush.

More pix - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157605517070220/

So nice to retreat to nature during weekends. Keeps one sane. All your Singaporeans living in your garden city - you don't know what you have til you don't have it. Sigh.

To get to the trail head of Elephant Mountain, nearest MRT station Yongchun, exit 4. Walk towards Songshan Road. Turn right and walk to the end of Songshan Road. There'll be signs guiding you to the steps that start the trail. Another alternative is from Xinyi Road, Zhongqiang Park.

Cool concepts coming real

This is an idea I've had for the last 2 years. Where all you need for a presentation wherever u are, is a blank white wall.

Asus - a Taiwanese company pulled it off.
http://www.pclaunches.com/notebooks/asus_notebook_with_builtin_projector.php

Now if someone can do halogram projections, I'm in heaven!

I'm pretty disappointed with HP. I had hoped that the consumer NB team where I am now working with, are more cutting edge. Oh they are cutting people alright, just too busy waging war on one another instead of focusing on their jobs.

I wonder if I should explore working for a Taiwanese technology company. What they lack in marketing finesse, they make up for with an ability to pull off new ideas.

Friendship

Just what is a friend? I've been struggling with this for many years now. Then it was friends who leave you when you're down. Now it's Kuansie who promises then pulls out on you last minute or she'll nit picks and puts down all your suggestions - ie a veritable cold blanket.

Isn't friendship supposed to contain elements of support and reciprocity? Or am I misguided?

Ok, so I know the one true friend in life is Jesus, but yet, if friendship are such undependable associations why do we bother?

Yoo hoo, Francis?

It seems only like yesterday when Francis helped me buy stuff and prepare for my move to Taiwan.

11 months on, the man hasn't even visited!

Comeon, buy a ticket already!

Weight - a serious problem and growing...

Eating my way thru Taipei, Vincent found this restaurant called Chef Showtime. Yes yes, I know the perchant for stupid sounding names in Taiwan often creates false impressions (bad ones)...

But this time, Vincent picked a winner. I knew it was going to be good when the waitress (I suspect the owner herself) suggested we picked 3 appetizers and they can make a combo out of it, so we gain variety.

The appetizers were to die for.

The main meals were pretty awesome too.

Make an appointment, the restaurant really closes at 9.30pm.

Chef Show Time
台北市敦化南路二段81巷20號
Tel - 02-2702-5277、2702-5276
http://chefshowtime.myweb.hinet.net/

Monday - bleeh!

Monday bluezzz...

Bad news day or maybe I'm just irritable cos it's Monday - bleeeh!

I heard from Peter that a rockclimber fell to her death yesterday. I didn't know her personally, but I knew who she was : young, fun, bubbly person.

Regretfully, I wished overall safety attitudes are better in Taiwan. It scares me still to know that they belay without a brake hand, or simulataneously belaying 2 climbers with 1 belay device? Last month, a dive boat left without it's full load of 8 divers - they drifted for 4 day until one of them swam all day for a nearby island. What was the boat driver thinking?

It is more than a matter of who's system is better. It is about ensuring one's life.

And HP's travel desk again rejected my travel expense claim forms. I hate them with a vengence. Perhaps they just hate the TDC-cNB team. You know what, so do I. Maybe I'm not the only one.

I cracked and I squealed

Had you ever danced with the devil in the pale moon light?

I ate lunch with my boss' boss today and gave him the absolute low-down on what I felt was wrong with the office and my co-workers.

Yeah, I squealed on everyone.

The goal was peaceful - for a better office atmosphere with team spirit and cooperation. I know it is possible because it is de rigueur in the rest of HP!

Will I live to regret this moment? Perhaps. If I do, then I live and I learn.

Palo Alto, California

I forgot to bring my residence card while leaving Taiwan for US. Some difficulty at customs and I was almost tempted to go home. To be forced to spend 1 week with my yucky co-workers was not something I looked forward to anyways...

But being the responsible employee that I am.. I went nontheless. :(

And I discovered I love California. It is so me! People here cycle to work on their racers - I drool at the bikes. We tried to walk to the nearby mall - Stanford Shopping Centre, the hotel folks said 10min walk. I am guessing Californians are very athletic people, it took us almost half an hour. Then again, we walked a little, whined about how tired we are, and how we only see trees and no buildings..

And I discovered I do get jetlagged. 1st time in my life. Slept at 1.30am, woke up 3.30am. Nothing I did helped get me into bed. Read newspapers, read Bible, read emails... GROAN! At 6am, I gave up and took brisk jog in the park across the hotel. (Brisk cos it is COLD in the mornings!) Many Caliornians up and about - cycling, jogging... I love it here!

Last night we had dinner at Santana Row. It was so cool.

Now, how do I get myself a job here in Cupertino or Palo Alto? Anybody?

On a similar vein, Steph got herself a job in Cupertino! You go gal! I will be visiting! She's finally making up for the fact that she refused to transfer over to Seoul 2 years ago. (Cos I love Korean food and I need free accomodation when I visit - hey, it's not always about you u know!).

My ride to SF airport was a stretch limo.... Jesus loves me! (see left pix)

My ride home from Taoyuan airport was a van... Sigh! (see right pix)

Turbulence

Clear air turbulence weather (CAT), colloquially referred to as "air pockets", is the erratic movement of air masses in the absence of any visual cues, such as clouds. Clear-Air Turbulence is caused when bodies of air moving at widely different speeds meet; at high altitudes (7,000-12,000 metres/23,000-39,000 feet) this is frequently encountered around jet streams or sometimes near mountain ranges.

Turbulences can be compared to little irks in life that bugs you but what's worse, it causes you to takes your eyes off the more important things in life - that destination you were heading for. We need to keep our eye on the prize and not sweat the small things in life - the air pockets!

It's funny what you think about while flying... ok ok, the digital entertainment on Cathay Pacific sucks. And the fact that it took half a day to get across the Taiwan Straits is simply ridiculous. I hope President Ma gets direct flights between Taiwan and China going soon!

I'm in Shanghai for OOBE (out of box experience). And we rode Shanghai's Maglav trains from the airport into the city. So, for the 2nd time in so many days, I got to ride another high speed train. Unlike Taiwan's version, Shanghai's operate on magnetic levitation to float on rails instead of the conventional steel wheels. It hit top speed of 305km/h - and I just learned that it goes up to max of 400km/h in the day time (I landed at night). Guess I'm on the Maglev back to the airport instead of cabbing in.

And my Hyatt on the Bund hotel room is really nice. Traveling within Asia is always so nice...

Of cos when in China, there's time for a massage every night. They have the best massage spas, at affordable prices and the best part, open til 2am every night. Sharon told me to go to the Dragonfly. That I went back 2 nights in a row speaks for itself.

Halo is cool!

Halo is HP's video conferencing facility, I experienced for the first time today. It allows up to 4 way conferencing and is simply awesome. No lag and it feels as if the various parties are in the same room.
www.hp.com/halo

This morning, the service guys did a teardown of a notebook. I got to see a notebook stripped down to the various components. Very interesting and educational. Essentially everything's mounted onto 3 parts, the LCD, the base pan top and bottom.

Learn something new each day - some days you wake up to a new world of learnings - literally.

There is only one way to put an end to evil, and that is to do good for evil - Leo Tolstoy

Ron Rolheiser's last week's column titled, Hatred and the Gospel was so profoundly written that it is reproduced here for your reading pleasure.

There is a popular theme within Christian apologetics that goes something like this: Christianity is the most hated of all religions and that is a certain proof of its truth. The logic works this way: If we are so unfairly hated, we must be doing something right. Truth and innocence draw hatred. Jesus was hated, and so are we!We need to be careful with that because, among other things, today, thanks to certain radical fundamentalists claiming to be Muslim, Islam is probably the most hated of all religions, and hated not because of what is true and best inside of it. Not only innocence and truth draw hatred. Being hated is not always a good sign or an indication that you (alone among the unfaithful) are holding to the real truth. It may be that you have made a vow of alienation rather than of love. Both eventually make you hated.Being hated is only a criterion of carrying the truth if you have made a vow of love. Jesus wasn�t trying to be divisive and unpopular, he was trying to speak his truth in ways that precisely didn�t alienate and didn�t provoke hatred. But that isn�t always possible. He was trying to love others, purely and in the truth, but it eventually made him an object of hatred.That isn�t surprising.There is a certain proclivity within human nature to hate innocence and goodness. We see this illustrated in many books and movies. Notice how in so many stories that depict the struggle between good and evil, invariably, the bad will eventually train its sights on and fixate on what is its opposite, innocence and goodness. In most every dramatic epic, eventually the guns of the bad guys will end up trained upon the most innocent and loving person in town. It�s the saint who invariably bears the brunt of wound and hurt inside of a community. It is the saint who eventually is the scapegoat. It happened to Jesus. It happens to all goodness; by its stripes we are healed.Why?Because such is the anatomy of hatred. Hatred is a perverse form of love, love�s grief. It�s what love becomes when, because of wound and circumstance, it cannot be warm and reciprocal. Rollo May once famously stated that hatred is not the opposite of love. Indifference is. Hatred might instead be described as cold, wounded, frustrated, and grieving love, love gone sour. You can�t conjure-up a powerful hatred for someone unless at some level you first love him or her. When love is wounded and frustrated, the tears it provokes can be warm and cleansing, but they can also be bitter and cold. Cold grief. Hatred with its children, jealousy, bitterness, murderous feelings. That�s part of the anatomy of love and that�s why love can so quickly turn into hatred and why most murders are domestic. When love breaks down what follows is rarely indifference (a parting in good friendship). What follows is often hatred, bitterness, coldness. Affairs mostly grow sour, not indifferent, and the same is, sadly, true of love in almost all its aspects.What�s to be learned from this?That hatred needs to be understood, whether it�s at a personal level or at the level of whole civilizations hating each other. Hatred is not the opposite of love. It is a perverse form of love, cold grief, bitter disaffection, that needs not to be met in kind, with a reciprocal form of coldness, but with warmth and forgiveness, tough as these are in the face of their opposite. One of the great moral struggles of our lives lies precisely in this. When people hate us what spontaneous feeling rise within us? Feelings of coldness and anger, along with the wish, secret and not-so-secret, that their lives will go badly and that, in the ensuing misery, they will be forced to see their error and have to swallow against their will the fact that they are wrong, particularly about us. Hatred wants the other to choke on his or her own error.But none of that will be productive for those who hate us, or for ourselves. Only if good things begin to happen in the lives of those who hate us, only if they feel the warmth of love and blessing, can their hearts let go of the bitterness, jealousy, and hatred that�s there. Hearts don�t thaw out inside of bitterness and jealousy. They break. It�s not when people are bitter that they admit the error of their ways and the unfairness of their hatred. Hearts begin to see how wrong their hatred is only when the very object of their jealousy and hatred is itself strong enough to not give back in kind, but instead to absorb the hatred for what it is, wounded love, love gone cold when it would want to be warm.Leo Tolstoy once said: "There is only one way to put an end to evil, and that is to do good for evil."

Labour Day Long Wknd Getaway in Taichong & Sun Moon Lake

A few 1sts this weekend.
- finally rode the high speed rail! It is FAST!
- made it out beyond Hualien into Taichong
- visted the much talked about Sun Moon Lake
- scootering

Was pretty fun except Sun Moon Lake was er.. hohum boring. I suppose the heavy rain affected our experience, but I honestly didn't think it was all that it was made out to be. Anyways, the high point of Sun Moon Lake for us were the foot massage - I like all massage :) and scootering which scared me sh__.

I got lazy with picture taking this trip... The hotel rooms were pretty decent, esp the Sun Moon Lake accomodate - it was nice. I would recommend it to visitors. Here're my few pix -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157604879391371/ Kuansie took loads more pix - I'll try to add a link to her website if she parks them up.

Ran in this morning's Supau Cup - no championship tags and it was super crowded. Was warm too (which I suppose is way better than the 14degrees I did in January's Nike Run). Clocked a slow time - 1.01 same as Nike Run. I will work on this - my gym membership starts in June after my US trip.

I live for holidays!

The much talked about Taichung adventure finally. Garin & I been meaning to do this forever.

Itineary
Thu May 1
- high speed rail to Taichung, business class no less :)
- check into http://www.debaohotel.com.tw/en/mainpage.php.
- go race each other at go-karts http://www.taiwanfun.com/central/taichung/recreation/0307/0307wnROSSO.htm
- tour and party in Taichung rest of day

Fri May 2
- bus ourselves to Nantou, Sun Moon Lake
- check into http://www.lakebank.idv.tw/
- chill til Sat evening

Sat May 3
- take the evening train back to Taipei

Sun May 4
- early morning Sports Supau race, 9km

Really looking forward to the May Day long wknd :)

Taiwan's Pacific Coast

Went with Peter's church group to Jinshan's coast - Lion's head rock. It was a beautiful day out, cloudy so it wasn't warm and very very windy. Blew away the political frustrations I felt all week.

The highlight of Jinshan are the 2 islets called Twin Candlestick Islands. The Taiwanese said it's like a couple - 1's male and the other female.

Then we had seafood just outside Yeliu Geopark and another visit to Yeliu Geopark - went there in Jan with Garin. Seafood was barely passable - Woraphot (a coworker from long ago) is right - Singapore has the best seafood in the world. Ok, ok, so I am biased. But really nothing compares to Long Beach.

Was a great day.

Spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with Kuansie, Garin, Kaori and her puppy (we all love Twinkle) and Vincent. It was nice. We were relaxed, ate a lot, had a decent foot massage, ribbed one another alot.. Oh and Kuansie bought a tree - literally. For her new place. It fits in really nicely - her 3 bedroom is beautiful. God is so generous with her. Not fair!

Defeated

Texan Rednecks 1 - Felicia 0

I concede defeat.

My game plan is to last out this year and in December start going for job interviews.

Out of respect to Jessica, I will try to stay 2 years, or at least 18 months in this job.

Been complaining about the work environment, the Texans, the acidity enough. I'll stop from today - along with the decision not to continue with this team.

In search of exercise

Should I join Action Life - the new Alexander gym (new owners who bought over the pack of thieves who almost cheated me out of 18kNT)? Or go with California Fitness?

Action Life is easy, on the way between home and work, too convenient. But expensive. 3800NT a month...

California, need to start price negotiations. But the nearest one is still a bus/train ride away...

Sigh, decisions decisions.

Knifed - ouch...

Back to Taiwan.

As was the last time, I came home optimistic and cheerful.

The cheeriness lasted 3 days.

Mon-Wed I woke up internal body clock at 7.30am, walked to work, at my desk by 8.30am. Stayed positive.

Wed evening in my 1-on-1 with boss - she said that one of my teammates asked if I had gone back to Singapore for a job interview. Ouch!

I had informed my teammates that I was going to go home to settle my apartment matters. So the fact that someone had deliberately gone to ask boss to say something else shows one of 2
- they didn't believe me when I said I had to settle my apartment matters or,
- they were trying to do me in by creating an impression of a lack of loyalty to this team

In either case, ain't good. I'm screwed.

Reinforces how I always felt about this team - that one can only survive so long in an acidic environment without it eventually getting to you.

Home in sunny Singapore 2-13 April

I flew home to settle the legal matters for my apartment. I will own it for a couple of weeks before the transfer to the new owners. Sigh. So much for my 1st apartment in my lifetime, my dream apartment nestled in the rain forests.

I love Singapore, here...
- birds chirp everywhere here, it truly is what our Communications Minister said 'living in Singapore would be like living in a garden'.
- the air is fresh and warm
- people here WANT to eat lunch with me. I take appointments. Sigh...
- co-workers are professional, ok ok, they ain't texan rednecks. No need to draw at high-noon.

And you know what, I realise I've been in Taiwan too long when I caught myself
- missing & NEEDING a bubble tea fix BAD!
- after making payment for purchases, I stand and wait for the sweepstate receipt
- I miss the politeness of service folks - Singaporeans can be way way too brusque for our own good.

One more week of stuffing myself silly with local food and walking around sweating in the tropical heat...

Guitar Lessons

After a mild hic-cup with Yamaha - they kept delaying the start of lessons. The 4th time in a row they pushed out the start, I asked for my $ back.

Went to Kawai - across the street from my place. Incidentally I first checked them out, but somehow assumed Yamaha would be more professional.

The good thing about Kawai, other than distance is that it's 1-on-1 coaching. Considering I'm a complete neophyte, perhaps it's a better thing. I had this mental picture of a sweet mild patient young lady teacher.

Instead this guy in a black leather jacket carrying a coffee - with a bad ass attitude to boot. Like a rocker! And he went on to waste most of the lessons impressing me with riffs from all genres. He likes bluegrass a lot - but I have this distaste for anything cowboy right now :(

He's pretty good and eventually we got to playing some. My rockclimber fingers - which I assumed would be strong, actually aren't! I can't stretch them out far apart enough. He also said I need to practise at least half to an hour daily. Gah!

It was interesting.

It's dark out...

Sometime ago, 2007, in Singapore HP office, end of work day

Felicia - "oo, it's dark out, time to go home"

Singapore co-worker - "don't be ridiculous, turn your headlights on when you drive home"

Today, Mar 17 2008, Taiwan HP office, end of work day

Felicia - "oo, it's dark out, time to go home"

Taiwan co-worker - "don't be ridiculous, it's only 6pm"

As you can see, when it gets dark out, it doesn't necesarily mean time to go home.

Speaking of it being dark out, I was pretty bumped out last 2 weeks. Skipped all exercise, dinners out... stayed home and watched TV and pretty much convinced myself into depression.

Til Karine's realism... she is right - every job has it's ups and downs. And I realised how silly I was. I've forgotten to count my blessings.

Slowly snapped out of it this weekend. Went climbing and then to watch Taiwan's Bike Expo on Saturday (touched and felt all those super expensive racers).

Sunday morning I woke up earlier to watch the last stage of the Tour de Taiwan before going to 10.30mass at St John Bosco's. A deadly combination - speed, muscles and hunks :) I like!

And I have 1 more friend in Taiwan now - Kuansie officially moved over this weekend. And... now I can gatecrash the Far East Shangrila's gym. My muscles are still sore from yesterday - legs and arms from exertion and stomach from overeating at the eat-all-you-can mala hotpot place with Kuansie.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Yesterday's Responsorial Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6 was a much needed balm. Oh when will Lent end?

Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
Beside restful waters he leads me;he refreshes my soul.

He guides me in right pathsfor his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.

You spread the table before mein the sight of my foes;
You anoint my head with oil;my cup overflows.

Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.

Beware the Ides of March

I need a holiday...

The PH level in the office is getting to me... People here are way to acidic for me.

I wonder if it's because it's predominately a pre-merger Compaq organisation. A lot of folks here are long time Compaq employees, some have worked for Compaq all their lives. So this organisation is very very Compaq, with Compaq processes and with long serving Compaq employees. In fact, many still talk about Compaq like it's who they still work for. Truth is, HP bought Compaq - Compaq as a company should be defunct. But the Compaq culture remains strong. And its a very different culture from HP. It is more individualistic, aggressive work culture - almost bothering on hostility.

Or is it cos I am dealing with Texans. The cowboy 'fight-em-all', 'shoot-em-up', 'draw!' mentality is so ingrained that everything's a fight with them. There's verbals fights, there's email fights, there's conference call fights, there's face-to-face fights... At the end of a fight, when my colleagues sit back and say with pride and contentment - 'oh that was a good fight'...
This is way too unprofessional for me.

Or perhaps this is a personal Lenten challenge : remain positive, be a change catalyst.

Or, give up & find a new job, or perhaps return to cPC.

Beware the Ides of March, beware the devils within us all.

Bjork in support of Tibet

The Associated Press
Friday, March 7, 2008
SHANGHAI, China: China will be stricter on foreign performers after Icelandic singer Bjork shouted "Tibet! Tibet!" at the end of her concert in Shanghai this week, the government said Friday.
A statement by China's Culture Ministry said Bjork's outburst "broke Chinese law and hurt Chinese people's feelings."
Bjork shouted "Tibet!" after a passionate performance of her song "Declare Independence" on Sunday. The outburst drew rare public attention inside China to Beijing's often harsh rule over the Himalayan region.
The statement, posted on the Culture Ministry's Web site, also said "there is no country that admits that Tibet is an 'independent country.'"
Bjork has performed the song to support other independence movements in the past. She dedicated the song to Kosovo while performing last month in Japan. The lyrics include the phrase "Raise your flag!"
China's 58-year rule over Tibet has drawn frequent condemnation from foreign governments and activists, often inciting a prickly nationalism among the Chinese government and ordinary people. Many Tibetans consider the exiled Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama as their rightful leader.
Copyright © 2008 The International Herald Tribune www.iht.com

Living in Taiwan which China views as a thorny renegade province, there're some parallels to Tibet. Except China has not invaded by force... yet...

The Lord's faithfulness

Yesterday's reading was so moving... esp the last 2 verses. I had to re-read a few more times.

Isaiah 49:8-15

Thus says the LORD:
In a time of favor I answer you,
on the day of salvation I help you;
and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people,
To restore the land
and allot the desolate heritages,
Saying to the prisoners: Come out!
To those in darkness: Show yourselves!
Along the ways they shall find pasture,
on every bare height shall their pastures be.
They shall not hunger or thirst,
nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them;
For he who pities them leads them
and guides them beside springs of water.
I will cut a road through all my mountains,
and make my highways level.
See, some shall come from afar,
others from the north and the west,
and some from the land of Syene.
Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,
break forth into song, you mountains.
For the LORD comforts his people
and shows mercy to his afflicted.

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”
Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.

Best Asian expat city - Singapore

From the Taipei Times today, the best asian city according to expats is, Singapore!

And Taipei ranks no. 6 within Asian cities, no mention of what the rank is within global cities.

Majula Singapura!

Day Tour to Yeliu & Junming Museum

Garin & I had wanted to do this tour for a long time. Since Kim and her friend were here, we all went as a 4-some.

Yeliu are rocky outcrop carved out by erosion - the most famed of which is called Queen's Head.

The weather was perfect even the no. of tourists couldn't marr it - we kept getting swamped by the China & Korea contingents...

Next was the Junming Museum. But enroute, we managed to persuade the driver to take us to Teresa Teng's tomb. I have no idea why I wanted to go, guess cos it's nearby and on my tourist guide book :)

Junming is a pretty famous sculptor. When u see his works, then it all looks so familiar. We've had his stuff displayed all over back home. But he really blew me away especially with his wood works. Real creative guy and very very prolific. His works span the whole mountainside, from metal to bronze to stone to wood... I was really impressed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157604018796581/

Was a great tour! Worth every last $. Thank you e-go tour and Garin for making all the arrangements and bookings.

I'm also relieved to have my apartment back to myself.